Goodmoring all,
I've been thinking of the multiplayer side of E:WOM.
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Summery of what is known::
My understanding is that LAN may not exsist, (personally i hope it does).
Direct IP almost certainly won't exsist. (but instead semi-direct IP will, where stardock hosts, but it seams or acts like direct IP from a user point of view)
and both standard one off games will exist, but also a 'persistent world'. Empire vs. Kingdom.
I also read that the persistent world might have persitent bots . . . but apparently they've been axed
https://forums.elementalgame.com/352655/page/6/#2234501
Oh, and it will be simutanious play. according to http://www.edge-online.com/features/elemental-war-magic-unveiled
mention was made of Guilds, or some form of grouping with friends as well, but i couldn't find it.
Is there anything else about multiplayer we know about?
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Guilds:
I must be thinking of the wrong name, because i couldn't refind the guilds information.
but i think the Guilds are of the form:
Sign up to a guild,
compeat against other players in other guilds (or regulare maps)
final score counts towards guild score.
Guilds have little or no ingame affects. serving primarrally social and ranking functions.
Does anybody have any ideas on how to make guilds more entertaining, interesting, what can guild change in multiplayer games?
How big should guilds be idealy, How many people per guild? The two extreams are "Empire guild vs Kingdom Guild" with guild perks that grow stronger with guild size, and 5-7 player guilds that constantly compete against each other, where guild are given less and less rewards as they grow incurraging as many small guilds as people can think up names for....
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Persisitent world:
Known: two sided, join the side you want to win, play against players of other side (probably with teammates)
Questions:
Can one side win?
if one side 'wins' does the persisten world just reset to starting conditions?
Will players carry over abilities, spells, armies, from game to game?
How will individual players be kept from becomming game breakingly strong?
Will multiple players be controling one faction, giving orders (counter purposes??), or each player is a vassle state of the empire/kingdom.
If the latter will the most powerful spells, game ending spells be dissabled?
When starting a 'new game' in the persistent world do we choose an area of a predefined super large board? Since empires grow and develop quasi exponetially. . . how would this work?
Will the sides be devided by race? Fallen vs human? or both races on both sides all factions on both sides?
Any other quesitons? does any body have any answers i've not found?
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My suggestion, Super Epic Games.
I suggest that rather then one persistent world, stardock keep 4 or 5 persistent worlds running at all times.
At any given time only one, or vary rarely 2, would be open for new members, but always at least one.
Inside the persistent world there would be the Empire and Kindom, and until the game closed for new members players can freely choose sides between them. [Idealy for me rather then just 2 sides, 'guilds' of 10 -15 players could form and alligence wouldn't be perminent, {let the back stabbing begin}].
The semi-persistent worlds would be made up of about 100 - 144 'duel sized' maps worth of area. The land and maps for this surface area would be fixed{save for spells} and would be devided nicely into some reasonable number of 2 player maps, 3-5 player maps, and a few huge 8 - 10(10-14?? >:- D) player maps near the centre.
The games would be ballanced to last between 50 - 100 days {perhaps rated for expected lenght when they are first opend for players and being longer or shorter to meet demand}.
Inside the world users would have a persistent channaler, who levels up and can move from map area to map area taking with them a limited supply of the teams resourses, army, artifacts, and a personal spellbook.
The team as a whole would have a list of avlible spells(growing as the team collectivly researches), a supply of resourses, and army, and limits on how big an army they can support.
When a player starts a new battle / map they take with them some fraction of those resourses to the map, entering as stronger and stronger as the team they represent gets stronger and thier personal level gets stronger. An example a team may have a standing army of 80 units, knowleges of 50 spells, and some money, enough food to supplie the 300 units every turn and then som,and some supply of basic resourses. A level 4 channler from that team might then enter a map with 4 level 1 spells, 3 level 2 spells, 2.... , 8 or 9 units, and some basic supplies. Each map if it hasnt recently been controlled by a channler would have returned to being barren, possibly with towns intact, but empty. trade routes abandoned. . . Wanding monsters taking over / deciding to live wherever. Winning a map would allow the victorious channler to harvest it, staying in that land for a while activly rejouvinating it to extract suplies/food, or leave a strong garrason, which the team would need to supplie food for, but would protect the area against other teams preventing them from entering the land till the gardians are defeated, or Razing it to render the land even more infertile, creating an unliving wall between thier territroy and that of thier neighbours. [Hence why i prefer each map start with 5-7 or so teams of 5-7 people, rather then just two sides... but that's me, allow more border area between empires. more clashes.]
Inside the map each faciton would have avalible to reseach it only the spells / technologies that the channler brought with them or the team already has. (so you're not researching 'new' spells/techs, you're re-researching the spells/techs you know exsist and work, but couldn't bring with you.[only research the spells you didn't bring]) So early games would feal very differnt then late games where chanellers show up with super tomes of knowlege, be able to research and cast map altering spells, and command big armies to clash against equally strong and intrenched foes.
If more then just two sides are allowed then Team work remains vittally important. [a lone channler can only bring with them and have so many spells. Only combined with the power of other channlers can a large fraction of spells be known, and a large portion of the land be controlled / harvested]. Betrail however is equally important. Channlers desseting one team to join another, taking with them a portion of the controled lands, and thier fair share of the known spells. Teams would have to have maximum sizes, or incure losses with increasing membership to keep teams small and cut-throught. presumablly it eventualyl might become feasable near the very end of a given semi-persistent world that individual channlers can become so strong as to be able to fend for themselves, work alone and try to claim the whole world for themselves. Truely makeing themselves wildly unpopular/powerful.
That to me would seam to me to be a truely epic victory, rising to the top defeating 50 - 100 players in a semi connected world over the span of months.
To make the game ballanced, no player would be able to win just by being at the computer longer. so game time would probably have to be limmited /day some how. Limits would have to be set on how much damage one player can do to another team, if thier happens to be nobody of that team to defend the land.
Ballancing and techical issues asside. ..
What does everybody think?
Is this idea interesting enough that Stardock would do well to make it a reality? is something crittical missing?
Of course this would be a suplimentry option to just for fun for the guild games, if those exist; a sort of Super Turniment.
I'm done for the day, what do you all think?
Best wishes.
Robbie Price.
